


The Blood of a Planet

by TeamThor



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Canon Compliant, Hurt Thor (Marvel), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Protective Bruce Banner, Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 03:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamThor/pseuds/TeamThor
Summary: Hela has been defeated, and Asgard is gone. Bruce wakes in the aftermath, and takes it upon himself to make sure his godly boyfriend is alright. Spoiler alert, he isn't.





	The Blood of a Planet

"Bruce? Bruce. Hey, it's alright. You're back. You're okay." 

Thor's voice was what reached him first. His vision was blurry, shapes and stars swimming in front of his eyes as the last few memories and thoughts of Hulk settled into the back of his mind. There'd been an explosion, he remembered that much. And Hulk seemed...worried? Not about safety or fighting, but something deeper - he was worried about someone. 

That was new. 

His muscles twinged as he sat up, feeling Thor's hands on his shoulders. Grounding him, keeping him safe.   
He couldn't help but laugh then , a weary sound from deep in his chest as everything came crashing back. He was still here. Hulk had let him come back. And Thor - Thor was alive! And so was Valkyrie, and Loki, and Heimdall, and Korg, and...everyone. Everyone had made it. 

"We did it..." He finally managed, a little breathlessly, but his voice was growing firmer by the minute. "We saved Asgard." 

"We did." Thor nodded, the corner of his mouth lifting in a tired smile as he pulled Bruce to his feet, looping his arm around his shoulders. "Well, we saved the people. But that's what matters, right? That we're all okay?"

"Yeah, yeah obviously. That sounds..." Bruce paused, his voice trailing off as a different feeling began poking holes in the post-battle euphoria. 

Something was wrong. 

Thor wasn't even looking at him as they walked, and although his pace was slow (which he was privately thankful for, his own legs still felt like they were dragging through mud with every step) his breathing was erratic and sharp. His hands, still plastered with dirt and blood, kept finding their way to Bruce - fingers lightly dancing over his skin, like he was couldn't quite believe that he was there.   
Which, Bruce couldn't either, but that wasn't the point. 

"Thor, what do you mean 'saved the people'? And where-"   
He glanced around the unfamiliar walls, metal panels and piping stretching across the ceiling. A far cry from the golden halls and rainbow bridges of Asgard.   
"Where are we?" 

Thor settled him down on a bench, haphazardly throwing a blanket at him as he began filling in the blanks that Hulk had left behind.   
He spoke quickly, with none of the theatrics and eloquence that Bruce had come to expect. And that almost offset the horror of what he was hearing.   
Almost. 

Asgard was gone. Blown to pieces in an effort to destroy Hela, once and for all. All the prophecies that Thor had been struggling with, all the nightmares, even the visions that the Scarlet Witch had shown him. It had all come true. And that was supposed to be the happy ending. 

"Okay, you can stop now. Thanks." Bruce tugged the blanket around his shoulders, lightly pushing Thor's hands out of the way from where they fiddled at the corners of the fabric.   
"That's..." He let out a heavy breath, shaking his head slowly. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Thor laughed slightly, his hands twitching at his sides like he didn't know quite what to do with them.   
"Why are you sorry? Asgard's been saved. Everyone's still here, and I'm still here, and it's all fine. Totally wrapped up."

Still, his face was turned away from him, blue eyes vacant and focusing on something that Bruce couldn't see.   
The gnawing feeling in his stomach doubled. Thor's laughter was too shaky, too close to crying, and the way he shifted from foot to foot...it wasn't right. It wasn't him, wasn't the sturdy force of nature that he'd come to know. 

"Hey..." He started off gently, taking Thor's hands carefully in his. "Are you okay? You seem kind of off." 

"Off?" Thor shrugged, moving to stand. The spaceship lights above them flickered slightly, buzzing with the hum of electricity that was almost palpable in the air around them. "Why would I be off? I won, right? Right?" 

Bruce frowned, and much to the demigods distress stood up from the bench, his legs screaming their protest. He placed a hand on the broad muscle, still spattered with dust - dust from Asgard. Dust of a city that had long since burned. Dust from a home that Thor was trying to pretend he didn't need, didn't mourn.   
Bruce knew about pretending things were fine. And he knew how rarely it worked. 

"Thor, look at me." 

"Why?" 

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to see."   
Bruce lowered his voice to a murmur, barely audible above the thrum of the engines as his hand found Thor's jaw, tense and gritted underneath his fingertips. He tilted Thor's face towards him, and could barely stifle the sharp intake of breath when he was looking at him completely. 

Thor's eye was gone. Not just gone gone, like one of those cartoons he watched as a child. But carved out of his skull, in a violent display of red and purple, a long cut extending down the side of his face.   
He barely brushed his finger against it and Thor was reeling, knocking his hand away and turning back to the window, silhouetted against the light of the stars. 

Now all the lingering feelings of worry were starting to make sense. Hulk had been there. He'd seen Asgard crumble and burn. He'd felt the ash of a fallen city against his skin.   
He knew that Thor was hurting. And he was trusting Bruce to make things right. 

"Why didn't you say something? You need to see a medic, or someone-"

"No, they're seeing to my people. And I'm fine, really! Doesn't even hurt that much." Thor ran a hand along the wound, as if to prove his point. However this was slightly moot when he yanked his hand back with a loud curse, and one of the lights above them exploded in a flurry of sparks and glass. 

Bruce rolled his eyes, squinting slightly without his glasses, but Thor's shoulders were hard to miss. It was a little worrying that it only took a small shove to get him to sit down, but at least Bruce had...mild medical experience. Nothing PhD material, but he'd been on the run long enough to know how to stitch himself up. And he'd known Thor long enough to know that trying to pester him into proper medical attention was pointless.   
He'd just pontificate about Asgardian healing and say something stupid that he tried to play off as smart and then fly into the sunset. 

But he couldn't fly off here. And the adrenaline of a lightning fuelled fight was fading, to an alarming degree. 

Bruce didn't know how to fix the loss of a planet. But he did know how to clean a wound, and he knew how to listen. These days that sort of thing could prove invaluable. 

"Do you think I did the right thing?" Thor's voice cut through a long, uneasy silence, jarring Bruce out of whatever train of thought he'd been following. 

Bruce paused in his movements, arching an eyebrow curiously as he pressed a cotton pad against the wound, directing Thor's hand up towards it.   
"What do you mean?"

"With Ragnarok. I mean, you've got 7 PhDs, haven't you? You'd know, you're smart. I thought I was doing the right thing, obviously, and I saved the people. But Asgard's gone. It's not even just hidden, or taken over, it's just...gone."   
Thor stared up at him, the one eye filled with mourning and loss but just a little bit of hope. He was waiting for an answer, waiting for Bruce. Waiting to hear that things would truly turn out alright. 

"Yeah." He nodded, after a moment of consideration. "I do." 

Some of the tension left Thor's shoulders, as the demigod let out a soft sigh of relief, hands reaching up to grab at Bruce's wrist. He held on like it was a lifeline, pressing the hand against his forehead, screwing his remaining eye shut.   
For a moment, the sounds around them bled away into nothing. The engine, the people, it all faded away, leaving nothing but the echoes of battle and a faint ringing from the death of a world. 

Bruce lowered himself to Thor's side, carefully, pulling the blanket away from his own shoulders, and draping it over the both of them. The height difference made things more than a little awkward - jesus, the guy was huge - but it was safe. A moment of tranquility in the midst of a tragedy, no matter how Thor tried to frame it.   
Things had been lost today. But if Thor wanted to know his opinion, his actual opinion, he thought they'd make it. Scratch that, he knew they'd make it. 

They had to.


End file.
